The following article discusses details of real-life murder cases.

Movies have always reflected people's morbid fascination with serial killers, with some movies focusing on real-life killers rather than fictional characters. Even some of the most iconic fictional movie serial killers have taken inspiration from real murderers, like Norman Bates in Psycho and Hannibal Lector in The Silence of the Lambs. There are relatively few on-screen killers who are directly drawn from real life, however.

Depicting real serial killers on film has always been controversial. Some feel as though portraying murderers in this way affords them a level of prestige which they don't deserve, and they can often come across as sympathetic if a movie isn't careful. In either case, this can come across as insensitive to the families of the victims, who are too often excluded from the narrative. Only the best serial killer movies can explore criminal psychology without crossing the line.